As Good As It Gets

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I actually enjoyed this film up to a point. Sure, it's not great cinema (it's a fun TV movie, I feel) and it does overly draw on stereotypes, but it had some very enjoyable moments.I started to get fed up with the constant flow of stereotypes regarding gay men, but then took into consideration that the characters were two small-town Aussie blokes in their 50s, who try to find out about how to "act gay" from the local hairdresser - a flaming whoopsie who is, in fact, a straight man pretending to be gay so he can safely score other men's wives - and gay porn sites. In short, they don't have any real example of gay men to draw on. That's why their experiences in Sydney annoyed me, because nearly everyone they met in the Sydney gay club was a drag queen or other highly theatrical, femmy kind of gay person. I was hoping they would meet actual gay couples who were, you know, ordinary human beings. So that bit was disappointing. On the other hand a)if those guys were visiting during Mardi Gras then it might not have been an exaggeration and b) it was just an excuse to get Paul Hogan into skin tight foil bike shorts, and hell, he's still looking fairly reasonable! And c) the fact their new friends were so ragingly, stereotypically flamboyant ended up being necessary if the farcical events towards the end (when the Sydney gays arrive for their local do, further problematising their desire to stop pretending to be gay)were to work.The scenes in which Caton and Hoges practice "being gay" were priceless. Ditto the bit where they pretend to be a gay couple for the (clearly perturbed) assessor, Pete Postlethwaite. Why? Because they're so terrible at it and so obviously uncomfortable.Just as it was still looking a bit offensive, though, came the heartwarming cheese. The scam can't be exposed while Pete Postlethwaite is there, because they risk jail. They also don't want to upset their new gay friends, whose support of their "out" life in small-town Australia makes them feel so hypocritical. Caton's daughter has arrived with her new GIRLFRIEND in tow - cue the acceptance! And so Caton does a wonderful speech where, without stating explicitly whether they're a couple or not, he talks about acceptance and about how he loves Hoges. It's vastly better than what they did while being assessed, and it also has a classic response from the other men of their generation in the town. ("I knew they weren't gay. Mateship is a wonderful thing.") All in all, this is no classic but it made me laugh quite a few times.

I'm surprised that other comments haven't harped on this - but Paul Hogan's performance was absolutely terrible. I thought the film was otherwise very good, but every time Paul Hogan spoke in the film, it reminded me of my High-School musical acting days. I could never "get into" the story because Hogan was so terribly unconvincing.His acting was just simply devoid of any realistim and skill. I could barely grimace a single smile during the entire film. What I liked most was the performance by Caton and the gay hairdesser. They were fantastic... in fact, everyone was convincing except Vince. Vince, so badly so, that it ruined the entire film.

I couldn't believe what I was reading about this film and decided that I would have to set the record straight somewhat, or at the very least add a little bit of balance to the comments index. "Strange Bedfellows" is symptomatic of what is currently ailing the Australian film industry at the moment. It is a small film (has the feel of a film school assignment), with underdone production values, and a severely undercooked script. It's a raw, still bloody and pulpy, carrion of a script. The writer, excuse me, writers of this 'piece' would have done well to hire a professional to completely overhaul their basic concept paying special attention to the dialogue, as well as ramping up the joke to minute ratio (which was dire).The film is a throwback to the 1950's, I have no problem with the use of stereotypes, but those pressed into service for this film were retired elsewhere on this planet approximately 40 years ago. I suppose the film was about two elderly gents who were masquerading as homosexual lovers so their innocence could, potentially have been genuine. But the stereotypes 'dug up' for this film lacked any form of comedic, or creative interest. The lack of a creditable script and the uninspired use of stereotypes aside, this film could have been worthwhile had it been ripsnortingly funny, but alas, it was found lacking it that department also.I have heard it before about a lot of Australian film and television product relating to the comedy genre. It is said by those in the industry that almost all Australian film and television comedies have one thing in common, "they're just not funny". "Strange Bedfellows" falls into that category, it just isn't funny.....enough. There are, admittedly a couple of funny happenings (the opening sequence when the mailman spins around and throws the mail sack at a newsagents was mildly amusing). It was not a complete train wreck of an exercise (although it was pretty close), unlike a couple of other people, I actually thought Paul Hogan was one of the few protagonists who looked comfortable in his role. Glynn Nicholas, is also quite good as the towns hairdresser, in fact, as much as he could, I thought he stole the film.As a long suffering Australian, please, in 2005 could we perhaps, instead of making five half-baked, insipid, quirky sleepers, could we pool the funds and make one decent tear-you-from-your-seat blockbuster.

This is the funniest movie I've seen come out of Australia. It has a laid back sense of humour that you don't see too often. It's got a great location. Funny jokes without being in bad taste. The two leads Paul Hogan and Michael Caton are a great pairing. The support cast does the job well.The movies has great scenery and the movie flows well, not one scene is wasted. The humour flows throughout and it's not a one joke movie. Accessable to all ages. This is the best work Paul Hogan has done since Crocodile Dundee and is ironic that this famous Australian seems to do his best work when he makes Australian films in Australia.